WarpRider – Putting the bottom line up front…The Calm, The Storm EP is an excellent, well-balanced taste of what The Sun Explodes brings to the table. While beautiful harmonies throughout suck you into an emotional overload, The Grand Design and I Walk Alone, in particular, boast more complicated rhythms for the progressive enthusiast bent on hearing odd time signatures with the force of a hollow-tip bullet. For such a short dose of quality metal, The Sun Explodes packs a blow that will have you listening over and over to be sure you heard everything you think you just heard. Too bad this is just an EP…need more! 4.5

Irmelinis – The Sun Explodes is a band that lives deep in a creative mathrock-influenced ocean, they are confident about their odd style and are clearly not afraid to pursue various ideas when writing music. It shows on this water-themed EP, presenting us with five tracks of diverse and intense melodies that will take some time to digest. Everything feels spontaneous and charmingly emotional, while also being sincere, dark and melancholic. There’s no sign of the playful twinkle in their eyes that I’ve gotten used to from earlier releases, and that’s fine. The atmosphere changed, but they keep the same ability to surprise in the songs and to build impressive and energetic compositions. The vocals really stand out; an angelic voice with a devilish undertone, delivering everything from the most fragile and subtle delicacy to powerful screams and falsettos. “The Unnatural” is the perfect single, bearing the characteristic style of the band, listen to the interplay between the guitarists and the drummer and marvel at the extreme tempo changes, while “The Grand Design” goes into Dream Theater-territory, with a lovely bass and a brilliant build up. “I Walk Alone” is a nice and catchy song, but also the weak point on the EP, it sounds hesitant and struggles to flow. The ending track comes in like a superhero and saves the whole thing by adding even more substance and versatility with choirs and touches on an epic, mystical sound I would love to hear more of. Continue to keep your eyes and ears on The Sun Explodes, and check out their Bandcamp for more great music while we wait for another full length. 4.0

ChristopherMammal – The new release by The Sun Explodes leaves me with a sense of lasting satisfaction and prompts me to send the band a telepathic message: “Get the full-length album out soon, guys.” They’ve given us one of those EPs that feels worth much more than its mere 23 minutes of music might suggest. The music is classy, creative and excellent all the way through.

This is music for the soulful fans of very modern prog metal who bask in emotional intensity, complex but not convoluted compositions, supreme technical prowess and top-class clean vocals. “The Calm, The storm” should find enthusiastic followers who identify with technical prog, djent, and even with the non-abrasive technical death metal of bands like Blotted Science. Heavy prog rock and fans will also hear plenty of good stuff on this EP. If you like Cynic’s prog metal, I’m sure you’ll love The Sun Explodes. Every song has its own distinctive riffs, non-standard time signatures and thoughtful, intelligent lyrics.

The thread that traces through the whole EP is melancholia. It’s not morbid, it’s more instrospective. This is music that makes you think. I think I want more. 4.5

That is a good EP:-) I would prefer the songs to be a bit more edgily and also to offer a bit more diversity concerning tempo and something that surprises. But they are really good in creating beautiful well flowing melodies along a fine rhythmic bedrock. I definitely enjoyed listening to it.